Contributions by Ramon Stern
Ramon Stern is a PhD Candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Michigan. His dissertation explores both the impressions of literary critics and the creative narrative strategies of authors themselves surrounding Middle Eastern ethnic identities in Brazil and in Israel. His research interprets “minority literature” through attention to the interaction of narrative forms and structure with the social category of Arab ethnicity in two disparate national contexts. The list of authors from Latin America that have impacted him is quite long, and includes García Márquez, Borges, Cortázar, José María Arguedas, Juan Rulfo, Vargas Llosa, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Guimarães Rosa, Clarice Lispector and a Lebanese Brazilian author from his dissertation, Raduan Nassar. Reading in Spanish and then Portuguese inspired him to read more in English, and thus Latin American literature has always had a crucial role to play in his literary formation.
Natanael’s Notebook
Veronica Stigger
translated by Ramon Stern and Chris Meade
Opalka entered the small room in his son Natanael’s house and walked to the window, under which was a square wooden table, one of its sides pressed against the wall. On top of the table was a legal pad with a hard red cover, closed, a pot of ink—also red—and a pen. He sat down on the straw chair and opened the journal, where the following had been written:
Making an old book
a book of voyages
with pages that unfold
The story will start in a big city
—in a metropolis—
or by the sea
It will be the story of a lone man
an old man
a tired man
The man will be about sixty years old
wear a three-piece suit and two-tone shoes
and he’ll have a chimpanzee
His chimpanzee will be huge
the same size as my character
tall and … Read More »
sending...